McCall's Vintage Pattern 6697, Size 10 Nightgown

I have said it before but I’ll say it again, I love sewing with vintage patterns! This is a 1960s pajama pattern for Miss K.  The pattern comes with a top in short sleeves and shorts, a top in long sleeves and pants, or a nightgown. 

I had 2.25 yards left of this floral 70s fabric from a LONG time ago.  I used some of it for a sad little owl project back on Jan 18^th, 2012.  We had picked up the fabric at Hancock’s but I’m not sure for how much.

This pattern calls for 2.25 yards in 45” wide for View C, the nightgown.  I tried to lay the pieces out every which way and I could not make them fit.  First I tried with 2 yards of a different fabric and that was not happening.  Then I came to this fabric and even though it is the correct yardage there is no humanly possible way to make the pieces all fit. I even attempted to do what the pattern envelope showed.  Nevertheless I was not giving up.  I decided to make the yoke in a yellow flannel because those were the pieces I couldn't fit.  So I used 2.25 yards of the floral and 0.50 yards of the yellow.  If you are making this pattern I suggest getting almost 3 yards – and if you have a directional print…. So help you! LOL

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The pattern instructions are so clear and the tons of markings a pain to transfer but wonderful to have.  The instructions do not tell you to stay stitch the yoke – it tells you this in the “general directions” on the opposite side of the instruction sheet. 

In step 1 and step 2: I top-stitched the seam where the yoke meets the dress after gathering the bottom and attaching it. I also did this top-stitching around the arms where the sleeve meets the yoke.

After step 1 and 2 I jumped to step 7 to attach the pockets while the dress was still flat and open.  In hindsight I should have lined them because they are a bit see-through. L

Next I moved on back to step 3 but only to sew the shoulders – I did not sew the side seams yet because I prefer to insert sleeves while the garment is flat.

So I moved on to step 4 without problem and then became confused on step 5.  After I scratched my head a few times and re-read until my eyes crossed I went very slowly and then understood.  In more plain words – you take the button/buttonhole parts of the dress and fold under ¼ inch all down those long sides.  Then you turn and fold the facing part of these with right sides together to the dress and over the collar.  Much easier to understand this way because after doing the collar I thought step 5 was still referring to the collar part. 

After this I moved on to the sleeves.  There was a bit of easing them in but not terrible.  Finally I sewed up the side seams and then moved on to finish the rest of the steps.

I really love this bias binding used to finish the collar and yoke edges. It looks so clean!

After completion, the bottom was way too open with only 6 buttons.  K didn't want any more buttons so I lapped the bottom button band under the top buttonhole band and top-stitched over the existing top-stitching to close up the bottom half of the dress. Now it is only open where the 6 buttons are. 

Everything turned out wonderful and I’m very happy with the results.  I scoured my vintage button stash but couldn't find anything to match so K picked some normal-now-days buttons for it.  This nightgown sort of reminds me of a bathrobe so maybe someday I’ll make another and line it so it is a bathrobe. 

~ Happy Sewing! ~ Kristin ~